Tens of thousands turned out to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday, Sept. 21, for a massive memorial service honoring Charlie Kirk.

The audience at the event exceeded the stadium’s capacity of 63,400, with overflow crowds watching the pyrotechnics and high-profile speeches from secondary venues. They attended the hours-long event in memory of Kirk, who was shot and killed during a political speaking engagement at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10. He was 31.

Journalists on the scene noted that the memorial felt more like a political rally than a funeral at times, with voter registration booths set up inside the stadiums and speeches featuring numerous Republican talking points. Others insisted that’s what Kirk, who spent his time traveling the country and debating politics in college quads and public forums, would have wanted.

The only member of Kirk’s family who spoke at the event was his wife, Erika, who was recently elected the new CEO and chairman of Turning Point USA, the conservative organization Kirk co-founded at age 18, which springboarded him to political success. Other speakers included President Donald Trump and members of his administration, including Vice President JD Vance, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., White House adviser Stephen Miller and a handful of others.

Here are five noteworthy moments from the service.

Erika Kirk’s Message of Forgiveness

Kirk’s widow, Erika — who took the stage to music and pyrotechnics — used her moment to share a message of forgiveness for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect who has been arrested and charged with Kirk’s death.

“My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” the 36-year-old former Miss Arizona USA said through tears. “Our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That young man … I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it’s what Charlie would do.”

“The answer to hate is not hate,” she continued. “The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.”

Trump’s Message of ‘Hate’

In a now-viral moment during the service, Trump, 79, offered a different perspective on the subject of his political enemies.

“Charlie Kirk truly was … he was a missionary with a noble spirit and a great, great purpose,” the president said. “He did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them.”

“That’s where I disagreed with Charlie,” he continued. “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry, I am sorry, Erika. But now Erika can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that’s not right, but I cannot stand my opponent.”

Seeming to recognize the controversial nature of his statement, Trump added, “Charlie’s angry, looking down, he’s angry at me now.”

Stephen Miller Speaks About ‘the Storm’

Miller, who currently serves as the White House deputy chief of staff for policy as well as the U.S. homeland security adviser, positioned Kirk’s death as a rallying cry against unspecified “forces of wickedness and evil” and referred to the stadium crowd as “the storm.”

The phrase prompted critics to draw parallels to a 1932 speech given by Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels titled, “The Storm Is Coming.” “The others may lie, slander, and pour their scorn on us — their political days are numbered,” Goebbels said.

In his own remarks, Miller said, “The day that Charlie died, the angels wept, but those tears had been turned into fire in our hearts. And that fire burns with a righteous fury that our enemies cannot comprehend or understand.”

Miller also suggested that political opponents are trying to destroy Americans’ way of living, saying: “Our lineage and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello. Our ancestors built the cities. They produced the art and architecture. They built the industry … We built the world that we inhabit now, generation by generation, and we will defend this world.”

To his enemies, Miller threatened, “You have nothing. You are nothing. You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred. You are nothing. You can build nothing. You can produce nothing. You can create nothing. We are the ones who build. We are the ones who create. We are the ones who lift up humanity.”

RFK Jr.’s ‘Reptilian’ Comment

Widely known for harboring controversial beliefs, Kennedy raised some eyebrows during his praise of Kirk, which referenced the “reptilian core” of humanity.

“[Charlie] thought that conversation was the only way to heal our country,” the health and human services secretary said. “And this was important, particularly important during a technological age, when we’re all hooked into social algorithms that are hacked into the reptilian cores of our brains and amplify our impulses for tribalism and for division.”

Another of RFK Jr.’s controversial positions was referenced during Trump’s remarks, when the president teased that his administration is planning to present an “answer” for autism on Monday, Sept. 22, claiming it will be “one of the biggest announcements, medically, in the history of our country.”

“I think we found an answer to autism,” he told the memorial service crowd, saying his administration “won’t let it happen anymore.”

According to The Washington Post, Trump’s administration is planning to tie autism to Tylenol use during pregnancy, although more than a decade of research has failed to prove causation. RFK Jr. previously vowed to discover the “cause” of autism by September.

Trump’s Eulogy Goes Off-Script

Trump’s shots at his political opponents and promise about medical news weren’t the only moments from his 40-minute eulogy that felt more like a campaign speech than a tribute to Kirk.

The president, who took the stage as the final speaker of the afternoon, went on several political tangents, bragging about his international tariff plan and his crime crackdown in Washington, D.C. In fact, the president claimed that one of Kirk’s final messages to him was a plea to bring his anti-crime strategies — including federalizing local police forces and deploying the National Guard — to Chicago next.

“Please, sir, save Chicago,” Trump recalled Kirk — who was a native of the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Ill. — saying to him.

The president said he plans to fulfill that goal in Kirk’s memory: “We’re gonna do that, we’re gonna save Chicago from horrible crime.”

“I’m so proud of Washington, D.C.,” he added later, “and now we’re going into Memphis, and we’ll get that one straightened out fast. And then we’re going into some others, but we’re going to go do Chicago, and we’re going to have Charlie very much in mind when we go into Chicago, and we’ll get that one straight.”

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